Up against a rising tide, SDOT’s Vision Zero overhaul comes amid a nationwide road safety crisis
(Source: SDOT Vision Zero Top to Bottom Review)
A City Council committee Tuesday will hear new Department of Transportation head Greg Spotts’s plan for overhauling Seattle’s approach to street safety to better incorporate so-called “Vision Zero” concepts into every project and to implement a “safe systems” model with roads designed to be “self-enforcing.”
Spotts’s report (PDF) on the plan was released in late February. “The draft Vision Zero ‘Top to Bottom Review’ has been circulating internally and has catalyzed productive conversations about what specifically we can do this year to make our streets safer. In the coming weeks we will be sharing info on action steps and funding,” the director said earlier this year.
“People at multiple levels of government are collaborating on this urgent issue and positive change is coming,” Spotts added. “We feel the urgency and we are committed to meaningful action for safer streets with a focus on underserved communities.”
The report follows Mayor Bruce Harrell’s selection of the former chief sustainability officer at the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services and “15-minute city advocate” last summer to lead SDOT as the mayor said he was seeking a more “balanced” approach that better recognizes “the role of cars and new electric vehicles.”
And it comes as Seattle is grappling with its place in nationwide trends indicating the roadways are increasingly deadly — especially for those walking or riding bikes. Lowering speed limits hasn’t helped on its own.
According to the city, people walking and biking are involved in 7% of the traffic collisions in Seattle and account for 66% of the traffic fatalities. Seattle’s Vision Zero program was launched in 2015 with a goal to end serious injuries and fatalities citywide by 2030.
“We found that safety interventions and countermeasures used by SDOT to advance Vision Zero make our streets safer,” the executive summary of the new report says. “We also identified dozens of potential opportunities to improve SDOT’s Vision Zero efforts – by strengthening policies and improving policy implementation, streamlining decision-making, improving project delivery, and moving more quickly toward broader implementation of proven interventions where they are most needed.”
The Spotts report created by a review of “existing documentation and reports,” identifying “challenges and opportunities with existing programs and projects,” and interviewing “dozens of key SDOT and partner agency staff” outlines 11 focus areas for the new plan:
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Incorporate Vision Zero and Safe Systems approaches into every project and program
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Adopt clearer and stronger guidance for facility design
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Clarify and streamline internal decision pathways
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Be willing to reduce vehicle travel speeds and convenience to improve safety Implement iterative, ongoing improvements to our infrastructure
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Accelerate planning for broader or systemwide implementation of proven interventions
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Secure funding to incorporate Vision Zero improvements in all projects and for asset maintenance
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Complete racial equity analysis of automated enforcement. Address inequities and where appropriate, use automated enforcement as a tool
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Shift culture and strengthen support for Vision Zero throughout SDOT
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Strengthen and resource SDOT’s Vision Zero core and matrix teams
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Improve SDOT’s customer service response process
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Be champions for Vision Zero as we engage with WSDOT, the Port of Seattle, transit partners, the legislature, and other organizations
The way and how quickly those are applied to the city’s work will come next. Federal funding will help spur investment in safety work in underserved areas in South Seattle where streets are especially dangerous. Some of that funding will also make it to E Olive Way.
Three actions you can take right now:
1) Ask City Council to hold SDOT and the Mayor accountable to getting Vision Zero back on track. They are discussing this Tuesday, March 7th at 9:30 AM. If you can, please give public comment in person or online, or email [email protected]— Seattle Greenways (@SNGreenways) March 3, 2023
The draft Vision Zero “Top to Bottom Review” has been circulating internally and has catalyzed productive conversations about what specifically we can do this year to make our streets safer.
In the coming weeks we will be sharing info on action steps & funding. Please stay tuned— Greg Spotts (@Spottnik) January 29, 2023
I really hope part of @Spottnik’s Vision Zero review includes means to address blocked bike lanes (aka actual enforcement). This evening on 12th Ave by Rhein Haus. Asked the driver to move and he refused. CC: @carbikelanesea pic.twitter.com/y12j2HTRpR
— Equal Opportunity Hater (@_mattlowe) February 2, 2023
My favorite part of Seattle Vision Zero study: They specified the Rainier side of the new I-90 light rail station as uniquely terrible.
Will they fix it? Build a protected bike lane from Dearborn to Mt. Baker that keeps peds safe behind its hard barriers? One can hope. @Spottnik https://t.co/UCqJ8P2u9G pic.twitter.com/ZuC5MH61dV
— Bikebremerton (@bikebremerton) February 24, 2023
Hey, @CMAndrewJLewis & @Spottnik — why can’t we close Pike Market to traffic to demonstrate we actually do have a Vision Zero? pic.twitter.com/GFQy6RB24l
— Paul "Why are golf courses valued ₵ on the $?" (@PoulChapman) March 5, 2023
But there are plenty of recent examples where even when strongly funded SDOT has fallen short of safe systems and Vision Zero goals. CHS reported here on the final stages of work to complete the six-year road diet along the 23rd Ave and 24th Ave corridor connecting the Central District, Capitol Hill, and Montlake neighborhoods. By the time the project made it to its third northern phase, many of the safety elements planned for the overhaul had been stripped away.
Glimmers of hope? A last component of that plan completed under Spotts has finally overhauled one of the most dangerous intersections for red-light crashes in the city.
The new Vision Zero emphasis could help street projects already underway around Capitol Hill better meet their goals. The construction process for the E Madison RapidRide bus line, for example, has been a mess for people living and working in the area. It will eventually bring important safety changes for the route to the streets and sidewalks along Madison but a Vision Zero emphasis around the project’s construction could also go a long way toward making it easier for pedestrians and bikers to pass more safely through the multi-year project’s footprint.
Other Capitol Hill street projects still being shaped could also benefit. The overhaul and transition to one-way Pike and Pine improvement project between the Waterfront and Capitol Hill will include safety improvements along the busy routes as the city redesigns the traffic flows on these key connections between the Hill and downtown.
For other projects, it is too little, too late. The $3 million federally boosted Melrose Promenade project is basically complete through its core stretch after a year of work and the final result still busy with cars bumping over a raised crosswalk has left many street safety advocates scratching their heads.
Simple, more effective changes under the new safety emphasis may come more quickly. Making a turn at speed is one of the most dangerous acts in driving. The area’s most recent pedestrian fatality happened when a hit and run driver making a left turn onto E Madison struck and killed 80-year-old Bari Hill in February.
Efforts for increasing traffic camera enforcement in the city are beginning with officials emphasizing an equitable approach. Officials have also begun discussing one quick fix for the city’s core — eliminating right on red turns. More fixes — quick and longer-term, are coming.
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No where in any of this is mention of the responsibility of the pedestrian or cyclist. We drive extremely slow and cautiously around this city and rarely make a trip without a phone reading pedestrian stepping out into the street without looking, a cyclist running a red light or zipping in and out of traffic, a mentally I’ll person in crisis falling into the street.
Classic car-brained mentality. It’s everyone else’s fault. lol
No. Louise is just pointing out that both sides (car vs. pedestrian/cyclist) sometimes bear responsibility.
Except if cars didn’t exist, no one would be hurt in this scenario. Big difference is a big giant piece of metal, often carrying only one person, going high speeds and creating a vastly higher statistical probability of someone getting killed.
False – cyclists have killed pedestrians in SF for example.
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/bicyclist-sentenced-for-fatal-s-f-crash-4736312.php
He was just ‘way too committed to stop’ and killed someone in a crosswalk. But hey cars, bad police bad smooth brain times over there for you it seems like.
aka: the exception that proves the rule.
All this is driver. 3K lbs of steel vs. any of the above places the onus on the driver as is the law in most circumstances. Driving is a potentially lethal activity which demands the utmost vigilance.
No, not “all this.” “Some this.” The point some people (and probably most people from areas with with better infrastructure) are trying to make is that it’s far more complex than any reactionary (historically, the average Seattle voter) wants to admit.
We do, in fact, have relatively low pedestrian death rates in Seattle. You won’t find it in SDOT’s quoted studies – they use other comparisons, like the US vs the world, to rile folks up. Seattle ranks 196th in pedestrian deaths among cities in the US, or at least they did before many of SDOT’s current policies (like the 25 mph speed limit and safe streets programs) went into effect. Peep this data from 2017 through 2020: https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/auto/analysis/most-dangerous-cities-for-pedestrians/
Believe it or not, both Bellevue (35 mph speed limit and extremely car-centric) and Renton (pretty car-centric) are safer by this metric than Seattle. I’m not saying that avoiding certain safety measures is better for pedestrian safety, but it is important to acknowledge the big picture.
Maybe too many crosswalks give pedestrians a false sense of security. What value could a campaign to remind pedestrians to look both ways have? Do martyrous cyclists bear any responsibility when they block a lane to make a point while doing 18 mph, forcing a car to make a dangerous pass? I ask this as someone who commuted by bike for a decade when Seattle was far more dangerous on the street.
This town is wildly one sided on this issue, pretending that people that drive cars don’t have lives, or that they always have the option to not be in a car. We are not a monolithic culture, but a city, comprised of a multitude of lifestyles. Our governance should reflect that.
Separate pedestrians and cyclists from cars and they will be safe. Zero deaths is a ridiculous concept that is unattainable and it’s corrupting this conversation. Emboldening pedestrians and cyclist with entitlement and no reinforcement of personal responsibility is actually making things worse by putting them in harms way and aggravating drivers.
Oh yeah, and forcing cars to stop and go constantly, routing them through circuitous routes and forcing them to compete for space with bikes unnecessarily is really bad for the environment. Emissions go through the roof when you can’t maintain a constant speed.
Then don’t drive cars. Environmental problem solved. Save for people who do work in construction and need tools, 96% of car drivers can use public transit to get to work and simply don’t.
Sounds awesome but I dont have time to trade my 20 min commute for 2hrs on multiple buses and tangling with aggressive homeless people on the metro buses. But hey you seem to really not like other people having choices! Sounds a little fascist?
Amen!
At last count about 70% of Seattle households own cars. Add 5-10 minutes to their trip each way with another SFRD (stupid fucking road diet) in the hope that 3% of bike commuters maybe becomes 5% and rob a couple of hundred thousand folks of a couple hours of their time each and every week and don’t be surprised when they get tired of your sanctimonious crap. Especially when they are driving on roads that were designed for 30-40MPH speed limits and there wasn’t any previous epidemic of pedestrians getting hit because past generations of pedestrians weren’t immersed in a bubble of headphones and cell phones.
Personal responsibility, folks. You can’t fix stupid, and with life comes at least some risk.
Where do you get the number 96%?
Feelings and Believies im sure, just as good as data right?
Poor you… I cycle and walk around this city and I have to be extremely cautious because I rarely make a trip where some bone brained motorist doesn’t run a stop sign while I’m in the middle of an intersection, scream at me for crossing the street legally in a crosswalk, make a right on red without looking both directions, speed like a maniac, zipping in and out of traffic or gets so wound up about having to be behind me for a few seconds that they almost run me over in their desperation to pass at all costs- and no, I never run red lights or even cross against the light…
You are the one driving the 1-2 ton killing machine….It’s your responsibility to drive so that blind people, children and people without the capacity for rational decision making are able to use the streets without being run over.
Again, we need separation. The 1.5 ton killing machines are operated by humans with (gasp!) almost never an intention to kill people. If you believe that driving a car completely discounts the validity of the emotions of the person driving it, I’m not surprised that you see angry motorists everywhere. That mentality is what needs to go. You SHOULD be cautious. We share the street. No one is trying to kill you. Are you hogging more space than you need because you are convinced you’re about to die every moment of the cycling day? 11 in 100,000 die each year in Seattle. That’s 1 in 9090. Your odds of dying by being hit by a car in Seattle are less than … heart disease, cancer, COVID, any preventable cause, respiratory disease, opioid overdose, gun, suicide, falling, drowning, fire/smoke, choking and sunstroke.
It’s just not as bad as people are making it out to be.
No… separation is not the answer. Responsible driving is the answer. What – do you expect pedestrians to hover across the street or something? You think that people don’t walk or cycle to actually get somewhere? The same places that people driving go to… Not having an attitude that people just going about their business are “hogging” the road is answer…
People in cars are angry because they’ve been sold a lie that cars = freedom… They feel like they are being cheated whenever they drive and it’s not “the ultimate driving experience” and all they see in their Chevrolet is taillights.. People have the false notion that being in their little metal bubble should mean that all of the obstacle in their life should melt away… when reality hits them, they they still have to share this world and that their commute is just as boring and tedious as the rest of their lives, whatever tensions and frustrations they have about it gets taken out on strangers, that just turn into impersonal cardboard cutout targets from behind that windscreen…
The next time you feel like someone is “hogging” the road, remember that they are a person not an obstacle. Remember that they have a life and a few seconds of your time is not worth more than their lives.
Huh? Why the f would you not want separation? You can’t legislate people to be more careful any more than I can make you respond with a tad less arrogance. If you act like an ass, you’re gonna piss off your neighbors – that’s all I’m talking about.
By “hogging”, I’m talking about (some, not necessarily you) cyclists that literally ride in the middle of the lane to slow traffic and teach drivers a lesson. If you don’t know what I mean, take a cruise on Lake WA Blvd sometime and watch the fun unfold.
On a separate note, do you imagine Matthew McConaughy in a Lincoln when you see people driving cars? I don’t think I know a single human that talks about getting in their car to experience “freedom”. That’s some hokey, dramatic nonsense. You must work for SDOT.
And for the record, I commuted by bike for 15 years in Seattle before my current job which requires I drive to work. It strikes me as ridiculous that people demand all drivers double their commute time because folks think anyone of any skill level should have the goddamn right to bike on any goddamn street and it should be absolutely imPOSSible to have an accident there. Look, I’m fine with sharing the road and clearly am reasonably safe (haven’t had a wreck in over 20 years), but I am saying that this town has a real hard time taking care of it’s own damned self.
I sure wish someone would run for council on a campaign centered on personal responsibility. I suspect they’d find a mountain of quiet support.
Lake Washington Blvd is (mostly) a PARK…. you shouldn’t be speeding along it ever… it’s been 25 mph since way before any of the recent changes yet people drive on it like is a freaking expressway…. Cyclists SHOULD take the entire lane there. It’s not wide enough for anyone to pass in the same lane ever- no matter where the cyclist is positioned. Even if the cyclists were hugging the curb – which is stupid and invites idiots who have no idea how wide their vehicle actually is to crowd you, it’s not wide enough to pass with 3 feet (the amount of space you need to *legally* pass), without moving over into the opposing lane, so there shouldn’t ever be any passing on it unless the motorist can fully move over into the opposing lane and pass safely… I hope they do close one lane like is being considered (and no I don’t commute along there so you can stop your seething over the thought that I might be the one costing you precious seconds of your life and no I don’t work for SDOT)
You clearly are not fine with sharing the road – you think “sharing” means that everyone needs to get the hell out of your way when you want to get through.. The only one acting like an ass is people like you who think that you are more important than everyone else because you drive.
And who’s being dramatic… Puleeze – nobody has to “double their commute time” to wait a few freaking seconds to pass safely. Nobody even has to double their commute time to slow down and do the speed limit, actually stop at stop signs and not plow through reds to make their “free right” (I also support abolishing right on red)…..
Drivers get so wound up and need, need, need, need to get by just to get to the next damn red light and sit there anyway. Most of the time when I see someone make a totally bone headed maneuver to get around someone it’s not only dangerous it’s usually pointless because they aren’t even getting anywhere faster than they would have if they had just freaking waited.
Wound up? Sheesh. I already told you – I ride a bike ALSO. This is pointless. I guess I’ll see ya out there in my blood-thirsty killing machine.
ReeFuckingDiculous. People need to get where they’re going. Deal.
And if you drive like that, you’re probably a prime case study of why these types of safety improvements are sorely needed.
3 yrs ago I was hit by a car while walking on the sidewalk in the middle of the block on my way home. Where do you think they were going? Dolt.
They should have been ticketed and gotten in big trouble for running up on a sidewalk. Oh wait, there is no longer any traffic enforcement in Seattle. Why might that be?
I strongly urge pedestrians to wear white at night or use headlamp. When it’s dark, and especially when it’s dark and raining, the drivers can’t see you
Um, if drivers can’t see well, they need to slow down until they can safely navigate the roadway, and you know, NOT kill people.
Driving in a dark neighborhood at night in the rain with people wearing all black crossing from behind parked cars it’s pretty damn easy to not see people.
I dont understand why it’s controversial to encourage BOTH drivers and pedestrians and cyclists to be aware, look up from their phones and try to be visible so people dont get killed. Sheesh. I seriously doubt most people want to hit a pedestrian while driving, it’s a nightmare scenario. I’ve had someone leap off of a lightrail platform in front of my car and barely had time to stop while going well under our already low speed limits. It was terrifying and made me extra paranoid about driving near rail and bus stations.
Exactly. Just looking at my afternoon today, I dodged 2 people at separate times walking through Rainier Ave traffic without A) waiting for a hole in traffic, B) trying to cross in a crosswalk or C) even so much as jogging to minimize their chance of death. This happens all. the. time. And yet still, somehow, we only lose 11 lives in 100,000 per year each year. Does anyone at SDOT have the courage to explain the circumstances of every pedestrian/cyclist death in the last year? I’d love to hear it.